WASHINGTON -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, is getting push back from Republicans after the GOP says he seemed to question why Congress would want to restore funding to help a child with cancer get promising treatment.

It came during a testy exchange Wednesday between Reid and CNN's Dana Bash. The issue was why Senate Democrats wouldn't pass a House bill that restores funding for selected federal agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, where clinical trials for new patients are being delayed.

"If you can help one child who has cancer, why wouldn't you do it?" Bash asked during a news conference with Senate Democrats.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY., answered first, offering the Democratic view that Republicans shouldn't just restore funding to a few agencies, but allow the entire federal government to reopen by dropping their demands for delay or changes in the Affordable Care Act.

"Why pit one (agency) against the other?" Schumer said.

Reid took over from there.

"Why would we want to do that? We have 1,100 people at Nellis Air Force Base that are sitting home. They have a few problems of their own." But he wasn't finished, and criticized Bash for her question.

"To have someone of your intelligence suggest such a thing
maybe means you're as irresponsible and reckless" (as he says Republicans are).

Democratic aides said Reid's wasn't questioning why Congress wouldn't want to help a cancer patient, but rather that it shouldn't choose to fund one agency while denying funds to another.

Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, used the remark to hit back at House Democrats who opposed a Republican amendment, adopted with mostly GOP votes, to restore funding for NIH. The House also voted to restore funds for National Park Service so national parks could reopen, as well as the Smithsonian Institution and its Washington D.C. museums. It also approved a measure authorizing Washington D.C. to spend funds raised with local tax dollars for city services.

"The United States is a world leader in biomedical research, and the NIH plays a vital role in allowing scientists and researchers to continue working to improve and save lives," Scalise said. "Unfortunately, 170 House Democrats are so entrenched with Harry Reid and President Obama's political games that they don't understand why we would fund these initiatives, like cancer research for kids."

Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., whose district includes NIH's main headquarters, said the GOP is wrong to target a few popular programs to fund, even if one is "a national treasure" like the medical research facility.

"It is home to scientists who are doing important work on trying to find new treatments and new cures for people throughout this country, and, indeed, throughout the world who have been plagued by those diseases," Van Hollen said. "They are not Republican scientists. They are not Democratic scientists. But they are, like all scientists, very smart people. And they've been calling me, and they're saying, 'Are you kidding? Who does the speaker think he's going to fool?'

"Because if you really want to help the folks at the National Institutes of Health, you could to it in the next half hour." That would be with a bill funding the entire U.S. government, Van Hollen said.

A White House meeting Wednesday between President Barack Obama and the bipartisan congressional leaders failed to end the impasse. Obama again said he would not negotiate a spending deal until House Republicans passed a spending bill to reopen the government and authorized a debt limit extension so the United States could pay for its financial obligations.

Rep. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, defended the House GOP position against passing a "clean" spending bill to reopen the government.

"There is a process to negotiate disagreement between the House and Senate. When the Chambers can't agree we appoint a conference committee with representatives from each body and they hammer out an agreement," Cassidy said. "House Republicans voted to request a conference committee and have appointed eight conferees to wait at the negotiating table for Senate Democrats to show up. The question now is when will the Senate Democrats make the same commitment?"

Reid said that he would meet a GOP demand to appoint senators to negotiate a long-term budget deal if the GOP passed a temporary spending bill so federal offices could reopen.

But closing down the government to advance an issue is wrong, Reid said.

"I opposed the Iraq war," Reid said. "In fact, I didn't just oppose it - I hated it. I think I hated it as much as (House Speaker) John Boehner hates the Affordable Care Act... I could have blocked funding for the United States government in order to block funding for the war [but]... I felt it would be devastating to shut down the government and resort to that kind of extremist tactic."